Kommersant-Vlast: "Nedelya, 15.12-21.12. 2008"
JUST A COINCIDENCE
They disagree
Mass protests took place in several major Russian cities on December 14 and 15. On December 16 the authorities announced that the reductions of the Interior Ministry's troops (one of their tasks is riot control) would be put on hold.
The biggest protest action took place in Vladivostok where about 3000 people staged a sanctioned picket on December 14. The protestors demanded a repeal of the new customs duties on foreign cars (raised by the Government on December 5 and effective in January, see Vlast of December 15) which, according to some assessments, would throw about 80,000 people out of work who are engaged in Vladivostok's automobile business as early as February. The picketers, after simply standing, soon decided to act. One group drove in the direction of the airport while the other marched on the City Hall chanting "Putin resign". The police were totally unprepared for such a turn of events. While the OMON units managed to prevent the protestors from invading the runway, in the city center traffic was at a standstill for five hours. Smaller rallies against car duties (several hundred people) took place in Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk and Kaliningrad. In all these cases car owners tried to block traffic (sometimes successfully) and voice demands for Putin (even though they were less drastic than those in Vladivostok). In Novosibirsk the slogan was "Mr Putin, trade your Mercedes for a Volga," in Krasnoyarsk it was "Mr Putin, help the oligarchs out of your own pocket". In all the cities the protestors promised to take to the streets again if the duties were not repealed.
The Other Russia staged protests in Moscow and St Petersburg on December 14. In Moscow "The March of Those Who Disagree" was banned and as usual accompanied by massive detentions. About 200 people came to the announced gathering places on Pushkinskaya and Triumfalnaya Squares, and a group of 30 National Bolsheviks tried to enter the Kremlin. A total of 90 people were detained. The march took place where nobody expected it to take place. About 150 people, chanting opposition slogans, marched unobstructed along the Garden Ring from the Paveletsky Train Station to Sukharevskaya Square, before dispersing quickly. By the time OMON arrived there was no one left. One of the leaders of The Other Russia, Eduard Limonov, said that marches would be held without warning to avoid clashes with the police and arrests. In Petersburg the march was allowed, but without flags and slogans. When the opposition broke that condition OMON detained 60 out of the 100 protestors.
Significantly, of the 500 people who gathered in Moscow and St Petersburg, 150, or one in every three, were detained. That bears out the trend Vlast noted in its issue of November 10: beginning from March this year the ratio of detained to the total number of protestors has consistently been 1:3. Finally, another manifestation was staged on December 15. About 2000 people in Izhevsk staged a rally against growing utilities and housing tariffs and the abolition of discount transport tickets.
Analysts predict that with the economic crisis already affecting the average person, popular discontent will mount and the number of protests will increase. This is borne out by the latest poll conducted by the Public Opinion Fund: 39% of Russians note growing discontent with the authorities. The authorities themselves are beginning to feel it. Last week Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov admitted that the crisis is "objectively creating more tensions in society" and predicted growing "political activity from extreme interests." The head of the FSB in the Penza Region, Alexander Grishin, did not mention radicals, but simply said that "protest actions in connection with the complicated economic situation" in the region could not be ruled out. By coincidence, on December 16 the Commander of the Interior Troops of the Russian Interior Ministry, Nikolai Rogozhkin, announced the decision taken by the "country's leadership" to stop reducing the strength of the Interior Troops (it now stands at 170,000 and was to be reduced to 60,000 by 2011). "This is necessary if we are to fulfill all our tasks," he explained, but he mentioned only two tasks: security at the Sochi Olympics and normalizing the situation in the North Caucasus. "We have a bayonet for every task," the General added.
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Learning the ropes
From Khakassia to jail
On December 12 the press service of the head of Khakassia, Alexei Lebed, posted on its official site http://www.rhlider.ru/press-centre/news/57595 a report on Lebed's meeting with the first deputy chief of the Kremlin Staff Vladislav Surkov (the editorial office has obtained a screen shot and a copy of the page). During the meeting, the press service claims, it was decided that after the governor's term runs out (on January 15) he will become a deputy of the State Duma of Khakassia. Mr Lebed, who was number 2 on the United Russia republican list in the 2007 elections (like most governors on the list, he waived his mandate) will replace Duma Deputy Victor Zimin who headed up the list and was approved as the new head of Khakassia on December 10. The announcement was marked by unprecedented candor. Although Surkov's decisive role in United Russia and the State Duma is widely known, no official or government body has ever mentioned his involvement in distributing parliamentary seats before. And no wonder. The Presidential Administration's interference in the process violates the constitutional principle of the separation of powers. The law On Elections of State Duma Deputies that lays down the procedure of the distribution of seats does not say a word about the President's Administration, this is the business of the parties themselves and in some cases the Central Election Commission. Consequently, barring the possibility that the press service did not have its wires crossed, it reported a crime committed by Surkov under Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the RF (exceeding his authority, which may carry up to 10 years imprisonment). The Prosecutor's Office is obliged to react to the public announcement of a crime, i.e. conduct an inquest and prosecute if the facts are confirmed.
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QED
High alert
Last Wednesday the number of regions which have approved the amendments to the Constitution exceeded the necessary two-thirds (56 out of 83) to reach 66. By Thursday all 83 regions had approved the amendments. The first to approve the amendments were the deputies in Kabardino-Balkaria and the Moscow Region which backed Dmitry Medvedev's proposals on November 27, the day after the Federation Council adopted the amendments. In the next two weeks the process proceeded at a leisurely pace. By December 10 only 20 regions had considered the amendments. That did not prevent the Federation Council Speaker, Sergei Mironov, from making a bold prediction: the upper house would approve the constitutional amendments by December 22. These words stirred the regions into action: 13 regional legislatures approved the amendments on Tuesday, 12 on Wednesday and 17 on Thursday. The regions took just three weeks to complete the task that they could have mulled over for a whole year under the law on the procedure of adoption and the coming into force of the amendments to the Russian Constitution. In all cases amendments were voted for overwhelmingly with only the Communists and the occasional representatives of the right voting against. After the Federation Council approves for a second time the amendments to the Main Law on December 22 the President and the regional legislatures, under the above law, will have seven days to challenge the decision of the upper house with the Supreme Court. If that does not happen (it certainly will not) the Federation Council will send the amendments to the President. He will have to sign and publish them within 14 days whereupon the amendments will come into force. So, Medvedev may sign the amendments as early as December 29 and publish them on December 30. And on December 31 he may feel tired and repeat what Boris Yeltsin said on December 31, 1999: "I have signed a decree handing over the duties of the President of Russia to the Government Chairman Vladimir Putin." and may resign."
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THE PRIZE OF THE WEEK
Vladimir Putin earns the master of muscular joke badge.
On Thursday Vladimir Putin cracked his first anti-crisis joke. He suggested that the anti-crisis measures be referred to by the abbreviation AKM. "The acronym suits Russia, I think it rings a bell for everyone and it is appropriate in the current conditions," the Premier quipped referring to the modernized version of the Kalashnikov automatic rifle, AKM. Apparently Putin believes that anti-crisis measures must have the same fire power and must be as formidable and fail-safe a weapon as a Kalashnikov rifle.
Putin is known for his fondness of solving problems by force, which is reflected in his jokes. Below are just some examples: "I recommend that the operation (circumcision - Vlast) be carried out in a way that nothing would grow in its place"; "nothing can be easier than brandishing the sword, chopping off heads and looking like a tough boss"; "Russia can get up from its knees and whack"; "the law must be obeyed always and not only when they have grabbed you by a certain organ"; "nothing works until you bang it". When archeologists invited Putin to take part in archeological digs in Staraya Ladoga in 2003 and offered him a choice between a knife and a brush, he smiled and said: "I'll plump for the knife."
The first Russian President, Boris Yeltsin too, sometimes made use of scary and brutal contexts, and not by way of a joke. In 1996 he established an agency to enforce tax and budget discipline with the sinister name of "temporary emergency commission", to which an even more sinister abbreviation, VChK corresponds. But that was an isolated episode where as Putin very frequently refers to raw force. It is surprising that, speaking about AKM, he did not set the inflation target at 7.62% or order to stop the crisis within 74 days. These targets were asking to be set. That he omitted to mention them is no reason to withhold the well earned prize from the Prime Minister.
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THE GENERAL LINE
Never talk to a foreigner
On December 12 the Government submitted to the State Duma amendments to the Criminal Code that substantially expand the articles "High Treason" and "Espionage". The current Criminal Code of the Russian Federation describes as high treason and espionage "hostile activities that are prejudicial to the external security of the RF" and the passing of information that constitutes state secret to foreign states or foreign organizations. The White House now proposes that the definition of the crime include "any acts aimed against the security of the Russian Federation, including its constitutional system, sovereignty, territorial and state integrity" and to add the words "international organizations" to the part dealing with the passing of state secrets. The government justifies the amendments by arguing that the present CC RF impedes the work of FSB investigators because "it is extremely difficult to prove that an activity is hostile", while not only "foreign" but "international" organizations also seek to obtain secret information. Lawyers and human rights activists say that the amendments mark a return to Stalin's article 58: if they become law, any person who communicates with foreigners or with international organizations registered in Russia (for example, the international human rights group Memorial, registered in Russia, is anything but loyal to the authorities) can be qualified as a traitor. Also on December 12 the State Duma passed the third reading of the law that forbids trial by jury of cases involving terrorism, hostage taking and seizure of power, mass disturbances, sabotage and high treason and espionage. Vladimir Vasilyev, one of the drafters of the law, justified the need for it by concern about investigators: the juries in the southern regions very often acquit terrorists, thus undermining the efforts of law enforcement. Obviously, the laws on trial by jury and high treason ideally complement each other and fall in with the general line in recent years, namely, the wish of the state to protect itself against its citizens.
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STEPPING ON THE SAME RAKE
He might as well not say it
Dmitry Medvedev has long been noted for trying to imitate Vladimir Putin, often with some success: the same gait, the same intonations and the same policy. However, when it comes to public demonstration of a tough "the President said and everybody fell in" stance, Medvedev invariably fails. When Putin lashes out at Mechel, that company's capitalization drops by half and the market is in panic. When Medvedev speaks in the same vein about "Polyus Zoloto" nothing happens. When Putin demands that a law be passed urgently, even if it is still raw, the law appears instantly. If Medvedev does the same nothing of the kind happens (in early November he gave the Duma a month to finalize the law protecting agricultural producers against "brazen fleecing" by the retail networks and the law has yet to be adopted). On the face of it, nothing awful has happened: laws have a way of failing and needing some changes. However, Medvedev is always compared with his predecessor, which makes each failure to project the image of a strict boss look more important. On December 12 the President stepped on the same rake.
During a forum devoted to the 15th anniversary of the Constitution at the Kremlin Palace the leader of the "We" movement, Roman Dobrokhotov, heckled Medvedev by jumping from his seat and shouting: "Shame on amendments. We have no more freedom. We have no more choice." As the guards escorted Dobrokhotov out of the hall gagging his mouth, Medvedev said: "Don't take him anywhere. Let him stay." The guards ignored him. Dobrokhotov was taken to the police precinct in Kitay-gorod, but was soon released without any charges. The incident was reported by many newspapers and some national channels, and was the hottest topic of discussion in Internet chat rooms over the weekend. The prevailing tone of the comments was that Medvedev is turning out to be a weak president if his own guards disobey him and that no such thing could ever happen to Putin. The commentators had forgotten that in situations that pose a potential danger to the number one, his guards are not obliged to obey him.
Alexander Kukolevsky
